1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automated telephone voice service system and more particularly to such a system which provides automatic recording and editing of voice messages as well as forwarding of recorded voice messages to other accounts and telephone numbers with or without operator assistance.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Voice responsive telephone service systems have traditionally meant either a telephone answering service or a forwarding service. Early telephone answering service systems connected individual secretarial lines to an operator plug board. Upon activation of one of 100 or more lines coming into an operator station an operator answered the call by making an appropriate plug connection between the active line and an operator headset. Upon identification of an active line the operator could access a corresponding client file to obtain a greeting for reading to the caller. The operator could then proceed to answer questions from information from the client file information or take a handwritten message for storage in a client pidgeon hole until the client called in to retrieve his messages.
Telephone answering systems have subsequently been improved by providing the service operator with a semi-automated terminal to which calls are automatically directed. The line to be answered is automatically identified and corresponding client data is presented to a visual display for use by the operator in answering the call. Any received messages may be keyed into the system for storage in association with the client's account until the client calls to retrieve his messages.
While such a system affords considerable improvement over the early plugboard answering systems, it remains limited to a basic telephone answering mode in which limited client information may be presented to a client and messages may be manually recorded for later retrieval by the client.
The forwarding services provide a somewhat different but still limited telephone service function. These services include store and forward services and call forwarding services. The store and forward services enable a client to record a message and designate a number of persons or telephone numbers for delivery of the message. Delivery instructions can specify dates and times for message delivery. The operator then proceeds to call the indicated persons or numbers in accordance with the delivery instructions and upon completing a call, play the prerecorded message. Such a system permits recording of a message at one time for delivery at another time, but still requires operator assistance.
Call forwarding on the other hand can be completely automated, but merely forwards an incoming call to a previously designated telephone line. Such a system cannot process the call if either the originally called line or the forwarded line are busy and cannot process a message at different times which are respectively convenient to the calling and called parties.